Nadia Ilse had been brutally teased by her peers for years.
They called her “Dumbo” because her ears stick out a bit. Nadia was miserable,
so when she saw the chance to change the physical feature that had always been
the bane of her existence, she leapt at it.

Since she was 10, she begged her mom for an otoplasty, which
is a type of plastic surgery that pins back your ears, making them less
noticeable. And this summer, with help from the Little Baby Face Foundation,
her pleas were answered. The charity, whose main focus is to provide free
corrective surgery to young children born with facial deformities, offered to
give her the surgery she wanted for free. But that wasn’t all; they also
reduced the size of her nose and the changed the shape of her chin.

Now, Nadia can’t wait to go back to school—this fall, she begins
her freshman year of high school. According to the Huffington Post, Nadia loves her new look. And though she knows
that she should have accepted how she looked prior to surgery, she doesn’t
regret it because she knows the bullying would never have stopped.

We’re thrilled that Nadia is thrilled, but we can’t help but
question the message this sends to girls everywhere facing the same treatment,
and the bullies who are making them doubt themselves. Should you change your
appearance in an effort to be perfect and stop critics in their tracks? Or
should you stand strong and be proud of who you are, regardless of what anyone
says—after all, you were born this
way, right?

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